This invention relates to equipment used for food preparation and storage in a passenger vehicle. More particularly, this invention relates to a galley unit for a passenger vehicle with a cart lift for elevated storage of a food and beverage cart.
Many passenger vehicles, such as trains, buses, and aircraft, include one or more galley units for storing and preparing food. These galley units are often configured to store one or more wheeled carts used for transporting food and beverages to passengers seated within the vehicle. In some instances it is desirable to store food and beverage carts above floor level to thereby increase the amount of available storage space within a limited floor area. It may also be required for safety purposes to securely store any excess food and beverage carts within a galley unit during certain vehicle operations, such as taxi, take-off and landing of an aircraft. Such carts, however, are oftentimes awkwardly shaped and generally too heavy for a typical person to manually lift the cart into an elevated storage position without compromising the safety of the passengers or damaging the galley unit.
As a result, there exists a need for a galley unit for a passenger vehicle with a cart lift for elevated storage of a food and beverage cart. There exists a further, and more specific, need for a galley unit which allows such carts to be readily stored and easily retrieved from an elevated storage position without endangering passengers or damaging the galley unit.